


play dead

by reeria



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Apocalypse, M/M, Zombie AU, Zombies, it's the end of the world and everything sucks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 16:14:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1785328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeria/pseuds/reeria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The undead have walked the earth for three months and Levi's been surviving just fine. He can look after himself.</p><p>But what happens when he finds a young man in need of help? What happens when he starts to build a relationship in a world where zombies want to eat your flesh?</p>
            </blockquote>





	play dead

**Author's Note:**

> well... i dont know what happened.  
> i've got two WIP fics to finish but for some reason i've started a zombie au fic instead....
> 
> my bad

It was in a toy shop and the stuffed animals were scattered across the floor, destroyed, torn and sad, like cushioned stepping stones that Levi took care to avoid. It was something about their sad, plastic eyes that reminded him off all the children he had watched turn, all those young necks that had been ripped open and devoured. The buckets of blood he'd slipped on, the screams that still rang in his ears. By his feet lay a stuffed toy, a mouse similar to one he had owned as a child and he could still remember how he'd been unable to sleep without it up until the age of 15, although he would never tell that to anybody. It was quiet, too quiet. Even if it was the end of the world, silence was never good; it was always quiet before something loud happened. Levi had learnt that way before any of this.

The ceiling was just one large mirror and when Levi looked up he could see how tired he looked and how he almost blended in with the dusty toys around him. Once upon a time his eyes would shine in the sunlight but now he could see in the dark and his eyes were grey like the angry clouds that hung in the sky. A lot had changed. 

Nothing moved for a long time, everything was as still as stone and Levi wanted to kick at the toys around him but that could end up with unwanted attention. He was supposed to be looking for supplies anyway but toy stores always distracted him. Children were rare these days and anything with colour also, so the bright greens and bright yellows attracted him like a moth to a flame. 

Nothing moved until something did and Levi felt the blood in his body freeze as he stared at the mirror above him, stared at the reflection of a shadow behind a counter. A foot had slipped on the marble floor, it had been quick and quiet but Levi had the senses of a cat these days, he wouldn't miss a feather floating down to rest upon the floor. The shadow was still, hard to make out, but Levi had done this a hundred times and he could taste the persons fear on his tongue. Whoever was hiding was definitely not planning to attack, something in the air made that clear. Despite this, Levi gripped tightly to the suppressed pistol in his hands and slowly, silently made his way around a pyramid of dolls. He really didn't want to use any more bullets today but if he had to, he would. 

He found a boy and a stuffed animal and neither moved, even when Levi pushed the guns barrel against his forehand, the kid remained still and only took a sharp intake of breathe before softly whimpering. He didn't even open his eyes and Levi sighed because things were never easy. 

"Kid?" The word was like a bullet and the room felt like it had been ruthlessly disturbed, maybe now all the stuffed toys were awake. "Oi, kid, look at me." The young man looked up, his hair sticky and knotted with blood and his face cut and bruised. His eyes were like two headlights on a burnt out car. Levi pulled the gun back slightly. "What's your name?" The stuffed toy in his hands fell to the floor.

"E-Eren." 

\---

Eren was 19 and completely alone, had been for two weeks now, although he said it felt more like two years. When Levi asked questions he didn't like to answer. 

It had gone like this, firstly Levi had deemed Eren utterly harmless, secondly Levi had checked for any signs of bites or injuries and found none, thirdly Levi had checked the kid wasn't a complete idiot or worse, a crazy lunatic like those cannibals from three weeks ago, and lastly, he'd checked if Eren wanted to live or wanted to remain where he was. 

"W-what?"

"Do you want to live? It's a simple yes or no answer." The kid scrunched his face up in confusion.

"Of course I want to live." Levi stood up straight and pushed the pistol into his gun holder, nodding once. 

"Then say yes. Yes Levi, I want to live." And as soon as Eren had echoed the words back, Levi was leading him out of the toy store and back into hell. 

\---

To Levi cleanliness and hygiene were immensely important, even with the undead walking the earth. If you started to let yourself go, if you started to allow the mess and the filth to take over your body you would end up losing yourself completely. You had to remain the same, you had to remain human, or you'd up end up losing your mind, or worse, giving up. You'd end up like one of them without ever being bitten. 

"We'll grab some clothes from the store over there and head towards the pond in the park around the corner." Levi explained and Eren could only nod, too shocked that a bullet hadn't passed through his head back in the toy store. "You can wash yourself in the pond, it's safe there, I just passed through it." Thankfully the small town was pretty void of any walkers; obviously someone had previously passed through and dealt with most of them. Levi had to decapitate one in the park but that had been it so far, which was almost unnerving. The kid was shaking like a leaf and Levi wondered if he made him nervous, even with the gun and his other weapons safely hidden away. 

Levi let Eren pick out his new clothes and when the kid returned with a black shirt, a black jumper, black jeans and a dark grey jacket, he couldn't help but smirk and look down at the completely black outfit he was wearing himself. "Couldn't find any pink jeans that fit?" Levi teased but obviously it had been a while since the kid had heard a joke because he looked up in horror.

"Should I- I can find some?" Levi rolled his eyes and turned away. 

"I'm taking the piss, relax." Eren exhaled in relief behind him and Levi was only sad for a moment, sad that a 19 year old boy was so miserable. They walked back outside and Levi continued to observe the empty street for any sign of life, or death. The place looked pretty normal; like how it used to be, just with no humans and no cars, except for one that was parked wonky on the sidewalk, every window smashed and bullet holes laced down the side. 

"Levi..." The kid sounded so damn nervous it was beginning to make Levi annoyed, he wanted to pick him up and shake him, shake some life and some fighting spirit back into his body. 

"What?"

"Thanks." The word pressed into his skin and caused him to clench his teeth, grind them together. This was why Levi didn't want to get involved with other survivors; this was why he was better off alone. 

The park was still empty, still dead and Levi pointed to the small pond beside a small playground and ordered the younger man to strip off and get in. Fortunately for him, today was actually reasonably humid, and there was only a slight breeze, which meant the whole thing wouldn't be as horrible as it could be. At first, the kid faltered, stopped still and looked like he'd just been asked to set himself on fire, but then Levi was tugging his own shirt over his head and folding it up neatly, before placing it on a clean patch of grass and then Eren was standing up straight.

"You're covered in blood and I think that's vomit down your throat so get the fuck in the pond and wash it all off." Levi ordered and Eren nodded twice before removing all pieces of disgusting clothing he wore, throwing them to the ground and stumbling into the pond, after Levi. 

Levi had washed two days ago but when there was a chance to get clean he always took it and so he was now lowering his body into the cold pond water and shivering with every movement. The pond was pretty gross, definitely not as clean as he would have liked, but it would do nicely in this situation. 

Eren was standing completely still with only his teeth chattering, the water up to his chest causing his skin to cover in goose bumps. 

"Eren, you have to get under the water." Eren nodded again and moved painfully slow, gradually lowering himself below the surface. Although Levi didn't want to be too forceful on their first day he also didn't have the patience to mess about, so he strode his way over to the boy and pushed down on his shoulders. Eren disappeared under the water and after a few seconds Levi let go and watched as the kid jumped back up, like a soggy jack in the box, and gasped at the air as if he'd been holding his breath for minutes. After a few more goes a fair amount of filth had already washed away from his skin, but there was still stains framing his face and his hair was still a birds nest of blood and guts and god knows what else. Usually Levi wouldn't touch something as disgusting as him with a stick, but the kid looked like he'd been through a lot and it had also been a while since Levi had expressed any sympathy, so he turned Eren around and began to comb his fingers through his wet hair, grimacing at the texture. 

"What were you doing in the toy store?" A few seconds passed until Eren spoke. 

"I don't know, mainly hiding. I thought you were going to eat me." 

"And what if I was, how would you have protected yourself? Do you have any weapons? When I found you, you didn't move, you just sat there." 

"I'm sorry." Levi sighed and cleaned his hands in the water, blood was under his fingers nails and the pond was darker than before.

"Don't apologize to me idiot, you just need to protect yourself or you'll end up as one of them." Eren let his shoulders drop as Levi placed his fingers back into his hair. 

Once they were both as clean as they could get, they pushed their way out of they pond and began to dress. Now that Eren had been washed, and actually looked human. Levi could see what a handsome young man he was. He actually looked alive now; he even looked like he could fight. 

"How do you feel?" Levi asked as Eren zipped up his jacket and pushed the wet strands of hair away from his face. His hair was brunet, no longer the dark, dirty red it was before. 

"Better, much better."

"You actually look human."

"Thanks."

"No problem." Levi swung the rucksack onto his back and headed out of the park, with Eren following closely behind.

\---

When you're alone for a long time you start to talk to yourself. Sometimes it's one or two words, sometimes it's complete sentences, and sometimes it's full conversations. Levi occasionally found himself doing this, and so he wasn't the least bit surprised when he overheard Eren muttering under his breath as they searched a supermarket for supplies. They were looking for food, water, first aid, some sort of weapon for Eren and a rucksack for him to carry it all in. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly the supermarket had already been ransacked and there really wasn't much left, anything that had been left behind was too moldy and old to eat anyway. 

Eren had repeated the sentence, "don't apologize, protect yourself" three times before he paused and called out. 

"Pineapple slices!"

Three months ago pineapples were too sweet for Levi. He managed to crack open the can after two minutes of bashing it on anything sharp he could find, and when the juice leaked out over his fingers his tongue didn't miss a single drop. There were five slices, perfectly yellow and impossibly sweet, Levi had two and Eren had three, the kid looked like he needed it. 

Bones were a normal thing, ribs, collarbones and hipbones, they were scattered on the streets and grew out from under pale skin. Levi used to worry about his weight as it dropped away from him, he'd always been small but never this small, when he undressed he kept his head up. Eren was thin and it was made much more obvious due to his height, his bones stuck out as if they were trying to escape his body. 

Levi found a tin of tuna and a tin of baked beans, which he packed inside his rucksack for later, Eren found a cricket bat in the (what used to be) sports isle, and the small smile that broke out on his face as he practiced swinging it through the air caused Levi's breathe to catch in his throat. 

After 45 minutes of intense searching they had managed to find a lighter, two bottles of water, a pack of tissues and half a roll of duck tape that had been thrown under one of the counters at the front of the store. Levi deemed the whole thing incredibly successful and couldn't stop himself from briefly ruffling Eren's hair in celebration. Eren couldn't stop the smile that followed and it was bigger than the one from earlier. 

"When you end up using that cricket bat make sure you swing hard and fast, put all your strength into it." Levi explained as the two of them walked out of the store and back into the street.

"Ok."

"Also, grip onto it tightly. I've watched people swing hard only to then let the thing slip out of their hand, that's not what you want." 

"Ok." 

"And when you've knocked the fucker down, give it an extra few hits just to make sure, or just stamp on its skull." The layers of blood on the soles of his boots proved this a very favorable method, over time Levi had grown to enjoy the sound of a skull crunching, for him it was as satisfying as popping bubble wrap as a child.

"Ok." Levi stopped and turned to Eren only to find the kid already staring back at him. 

"You've killed one before, right?" The kid blinked, gripped onto the cricket bat tighter and shifted his gaze to over Levi's shoulder. 

"I've killed a few."

"Then you know the score. Just be quiet, be aware and never close your eyes." 

They walked down the middle of the road, usually Levi would never allow himself to be in such plain view but this town was dead so he was certain they could get away with it. They walked from one end to the other before they came to a small roundabout. There was an empty suitcase on the floor, the latch was broken and a bloody handprint was printed on the outside. 

"Where are we going?" Eren finally asked and Levi sighed. 

"We just keep moving until we find something." It wasn't much of a plan but it's all he had. There were no survivor camps to head towards and he had no family or friends to find, at the beginning there had been plans, but since then things had only gotten worse. 

"Like what?" Eren asked.

"Anything, food, water, weapons, survivors, walkers. Anything." The silence made it clear Eren was confused. "Look, if we just stayed here we'd starve to death so we have to keep on moving." 

"Are there no places we can go to get help or to find other people? Is there not some sort of meeting point for survivors?" 

"No. There's shit all. We have to look after ourselves." Levi moved to head towards the opposite side of the roundabout, which lead to a street full of abandoned houses. For a few minutes the kid was silent, thoughtful, and then he spoke.

"My friend said there are places to go to at the coast, places where it's safe and there are other people." Levi stopped walking. 

"Your friend?"

"Yeah... I was in a group, but we all got split up... I remember this guy I know saying he overheard how there are camps on the coast, not sure where, but it's something right?" 

"How long ago was this?" Eren thought for a moment. 

"Just after everything changed, maybe two or three weeks?" 

“They've most likely been overrun since then, or moved on to another place.”

“Isn’t it worth a try?” 

The clouds above were darker; the air colder, it was evening and the light would quickly disappear, leaving them alone in the darkness. It was useless to keep moving now, by the time they would reach the outskirts of the town the night would be upon them, even if the place were tiny. It was a better idea to stay the night inside one of the houses and then wake up early the next morning so they could walk in the light. Travelling in the dark was never a good idea.

“We’ll sleep in one of these houses tonight and continue walking tomorrow morning.”

“What about the coast thing?” Eren asked, standing on the footpath with tired eyes and a hunched back. Levi thought he almost looked like a broken doll, like the ones back in the toy store.

“Personally I have no other plans, so let’s give it a try.” There was that smile again, suddenly Eren no longer looked so broken and was instead practically radiating hope and pride, appearing to be overjoyed he’d managed to help in some way.

“Good! That’s… good.” Eren let the smile fall from his face. “Thank you.”

Levi didn't know why Eren was so grateful to him so he quickly nodded and walked towards a random house to end the conversation. 

Number 3, a dark green door, a dirty welcome mat. Of course the door was unlocked and Levi pushed it open. It looked as if a family of tornadoes had lived there; books, magazines, clothes and shoes dispersed over every surface made it tricky to walk without stumbling but at least there were no dead bodies so far. The air smelt pure, no stench of decay, maybe the family managed to escape together and were now living safe somewhere far, far away. Maybe they had reached the end of the road and a hoard had torn them to pieces, devouring everything they once were. 

“We need to check upstairs.” Even if there’s no sign of danger you have to be on full alert, you have to remember the walkers can be quiet too. Levi crept up the stairs first, winced when one step creaked under Eren’s feet. 

“Sorry.” The kid whispered and Levi quickly stopped himself from turning around and whacking him over the head. 

Three bedrooms, one bathroom. The carpet wore a few bloodstains but nothing too extreme, there was writing on one of the walls, thick, black marker pen that read “Graham we found Harriet we are heading out meet us there”. Levi relaxed for just a moment, deciding they were just having a lucky day, when there was a noise from the pink bedroom they had just passed by. A slight creak in the floorboards and Levi grabbed onto Eren, one finger over his mouth signaling to be quiet. No noise. 

Walkers can move fast, walkers can bite down into your flesh before you’ve even heard it coming up behind you, but this walker was missing everything from the waist down and could only drag itself across the purple carpet. The bone of its spine digging into the fluffy surface beneath it, leaving a weak trail of old, dead blood behind. This walker was a little girl of about eight, who wore a yellow shirt with a smiley face printed on and piggy tails in her hair and colourful bracelets on her wrist. There was flesh, blood and chunks of body parts stuck in between her teeth and there wasn’t a single patch of skin on her hands that wasn’t covered in dark red. 

Eren cursed behind him when he saw her and Levi knew he’d let the problem go on for longer than he should have, so he lifted his right foot up into the air and stomped down onto the girl’s skull. Four times.

“Do you think she lived here?” Eren asked. He was sitting up on the bed, curled into a tight ball. They had covered the walker with a blanket and left her in the pink room before mutually deciding to sleep in what used to be the parents bedroom. A king sized bed stood in the middle of the room, swamped under a mountain of clothes, bags, towels, that Levi has pushed off in one big heave. Despite having only just met, sleeping beside each other was the safest option, so tonight they would be sharing the bed.

“Possibly.” Levi shrugged. 

“That’s really sad.” Eren whispered and Levi couldn't agree more. 

\---

It was early morning when Levi woke up, there were no birds singing outside to tell him such, but he knew it was around 5am because for some reason he always woke up around that time. The room was just light enough that he could make out Eren's features, he could watch the sleeping boy breath heavy, sometimes he would scrunch up his face or move his eyebrows and Levi would smile because it reminded him of a pet cat, Bebop, he had when he was a teenager. Bebop would sleep most of the day and sometimes Levi would sit there watching him as he dreamt, watching his legs twitch and his tail wiggle, his ears flick and his paws clench.

He hadn't seen a cat in three weeks and the last one he had seen had been chewing at a corpse, eating away at the intestines that were stretched out across the road. When he walked past it had hissed at him. Dogs were a different and much more dangerous story. 

Levi sat upright on his side of the bed for about an hour, stretching out his muscles and rubbing at his skin. It was nice, peaceful, to feel so calm, it almost felt like normal life again. There he was in a family home, sharing a double bed with a person sleeping peacefully beside him. There was no blood on the walls, no guts on the floor, no weapon in his hand, no tears in his eyes, it was just calm. 

As the hour stretched by the room became lighter and lighter until Levi could make out Eren completely, along with everything else in the room. He pulled himself out of the bed, carefully tiptoed towards the window and slowly pushed the curtain open just enough so he could peak out and observe the street below. Like he had been expecting, it was empty, there wasn't a single sign of life, just broken houses and burnt out cars. This was good news, of course, the last thing Levi wanted to see out of that window was a street full of walkers, gang members, cannibals or whatever else was out there just waiting to shit all over his life. This was easy, this was manageable, he didn't know how long it would last, for all he knew in two days time he could find himself being eaten alive, but for now everything was going pretty ok. 

There was a yawn from the bed and a rustle of covers, Levi turned to see Eren midway through a full body stretch and he learnt against the window ledge waiting for the younger man to wake up completely. Eren blinked his eyes open, licked his dry lips and croaked out a "good morning" that sounded rough and painful. 

"Here." Levi pulled a bottle of water out from his rucksack and threw it into Eren's hands. The kid gulped down most of the bottle in one go and then winced when he pulled it away from his lips to realize it was now practically empty. "It's okay, drink it all if you have to." Levi nodded and so Eren drank down the rest. "Once we're ready we'll head back outside and start making our way out of town." 

They checked the kitchen again, this time searching for any possible food or drink, or anything that might come in useful. Some moldy fruit had been left in a bowl and Eren retched at the smell as soon as they had walked into the room, it was disgusting to Levi too but he had grown used to such smells, along with ones far worse. 

"I think that used to be a banana." Eren explained, pointing at a thin, wrinkly black curved object in the bowl and Levi wrinkled his nose in disgust, he'd never seen a three month old banana before and he never wanted to see one again. Something caught Levi's eye then and he quickly climbed onto one of the counters so he could reach above a cupboard. His fingers found three cans, all standing side by side, and one by one he brought them down onto the counter, next to his feet. "No way!" Eren was staring at the cans in disbelief and Levi couldn't help but grin. "Coca cola!" 

"There's a can of chickpeas here too, I can't quite reach it though." Levi sighed, it was tucked away in the corner, resting against the wall, he wouldn't have even seen it if he hadn't have stood up on his tiptoes. 

"Here, let me." Eren began to climb the counter, pulling himself up beside Levi, and without any difficulty he reached his arm over the top of the cupboard and snatched up the tin. "I've never tried chickpeas before."

"You ever had hummus? 

"Once, a long time ago." Levi jumped off the counter and packed the tin inside his rucksack. 

"It’s just like that, hummus is made out of chickpeas."

"I like hummus." Eren hopped off the counter himself and continued to search around the room. They found a few more things that ended up being moldy or out of date and so they decided it was time to stop and just head out.

It was unusually bright outside despite the clouds that filled the sky; the sun was strong and peaked between, making Levi squint the moment he stepped into the fresh air. One thing he could never quite get used to was the silence and the stillness. Having lived in a city for most of his life Levi had grown used to the constant noise of cars, loud people, building sites, police sirens, even in the early hours of the morning. Here it was so quiet he swore he could hear his pulse in his ear, hear the blood pumping in his veins. 

They had been walking down the road in silence for about a minute before Eren had spoke. "Remember when you could see airplane lines in the sky? That's something I miss, when you could see the white lines they left behind." Levi hadn't even thought about that, he remembered about a month ago thinking how weird it was to see no planes flying above anymore but he had never thought about vapour trails.

"Years ago this one plane made a smiley face in the sky. I remember some nutcase going off about how it was a chemtrail and that the government were releasing poisons into the air to control the population." Levi scoffed, causing Eren to snort before suddenly gasping and grabbing onto Levi's shoulder. 

"Wait! What if that's how this whole thing started? Maybe they were spreading the infection in the sky or something?" Eren's eyes were wide, flicking around Levi's face, searching for a response, but Levi just remained expressionless. 

"Yeah, maybe they were bored and wanted a zombie apocalypse to happen to spice things up a little." Eren dropped his hand from his shoulder and huffed. 

"Hey man, you never know. Personally I don't trust anyone or anything anymore." 

"That's wise, just don't end up paranoid." Levi glanced over at Eren to find the boy staring back at him whilst nodding in agreement, clearly valuing his words. They had reached the end of the road, there were now two directions they could take, left or right. Eren stood slightly behind Levi, waiting for instructions. "Say, Eren, if you don't trust anyone or anything, why are you trusting me?" Levi had a gut feeling to go left, but either direction would probably end up with them leaving town at some point. He began to head around the left corner, taking slow, easy steps but then stopped when he couldn't hear any following behind him. He turned around and saw Eren fixed in his spot, eyebrows drawn together, obviously deep in thought. 

"I don't know." He finally muttered, looking slightly defeated. 

"That's ok, you can figure it out on the way to the coast." Levi signaled for Eren to hurry up and once the boy was back by his side they continued on their journey.


End file.
